Behavioral and ERP evidence of differences in pitch feedback control in late bilinguals’ L1 and L2 speech production

Abstract

AbstractThis study compared late bilinguals’ pitch feedback control in L1 and L2 production using a frequency-altered feedback paradigm in which participants read target words while presented with unexpected pitch-shift in their voice feedback. Variables of language (L1 or L2) and perturbation magnitudes (0, 100, 200, or 400 cents) were manipulated. Behaviorally, participants produced larger magnitudes but longer latencies of vocal compensation in L2 than in L1 production, suggesting that L2 pitch feedback control has greater importance but lower efficiency. Event-related potential findings demonstrated that 400-cent shifts elicited greater N1 amplitudes than those in the 0-cent baseline condition in L1 production. This difference was non-significant in L2 production, implying different neural processing of unaltered feedback and externally-generated feedback in L1 and L2 production. Participants’ vocal compensation and P2 amplitudes were similarly modulated by pitch-shift in L1 and L2 production, implying a similar gating mechanism to correct internal and external errors.